A lesson plan is essentially a step-by-step guide detailing exactly what you will do throughout the

course of the lesson. It is an important way of ensuring the lesson is coherent and achieves its final
objective(s).

But that’s not the only important purpose. Your lesson plan needs to motivate your students to
learn. Because motivation is so important in teaching and learning, we have dedicated the whole of
Unit 4 to motivation. So, for the moment, remember that a key purpose of a lesson plan is to
motivate your learners to learn.

For most schools, lesson planning is a formal requirement but there’s not necessarily one method of
EFL lesson planning which is considered universal.

Ideally your school should have a general procedure, partly because if you are absent for any reason
another teacher can understand exactly what you were intending to do and can carry that out with as
little confusion as possible.

The important thing, therefore, is that your plan is thoughtful and detailed, not only to
achieve your lesson aims but also for the smooth-running of the class.

When planning a lesson, you need to think about a variety of factors, including:

 Overall objective
 Learning outcomes
 Logical development of stages
 Time management

The way you plan an EFL lesson depends largely on the type of skill you are focusing on (language,
pronunciation, reading etc.) on that particular day. There are certain recognised procedures for the
preparation of each and in this module we are going to look at the three most common:

 Presentation Practice Production (P.P.P.)

 Test Teach Test (T.T.T.)
 Task-based Learning

The P.P.P. approach is perhaps the most well-known style of EFL lesson planning as it plays a
major part in the CELTA qualification and is often asked for by employers. It is seen as a
‘communicative approach’ to teaching. 

The general concept is that a language point is presented to the class in context (through dialogue, a
text, a situation build etc.), students then complete a controlled practice stage where they have to
repeat the target language in a specific exercise e.g. gap fill, before finally moving on to freer
practice where they produce the language themselves (plus any other appropriate language they
have learned previously) through a communication task e.g. a role play.

Presentation

The presentation stage of the lesson is quite crucial as it naturally affects everything that follows.
The idea is that the target language is presented logically and in context because if the students can
recognise the language in context then they will have a better grasp of its function and will
instinctively begin to use it appropriately.
When the concept has been understood, the target language should be presented through a specific
‘model’ to help them understand the fundamentals of the concept.

For example, when teaching a class on the second conditional, the presentation stage of the lesson
could go as follows:

 Present the language in context via a video clip from a series called ‘What Would You Do
If…?’ (*click here for a link to one of the videos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=jdFkojA3boU&playnext=1&list=PLROSRQsVldhx0gERmcYjEbH9lyhsvPY6j&featur...)
. This is a lively way of introducing quite a difficult grammatical concept and the themes
involved (what would you do if you saw a waiter drop some food then put it back on the
plate? etc.) should hopefully provoke some lively debate!
 Teacher then asks students what they would do in that particular situation.
 Provide one or two clear model sentences on the board highlighting the essential target
language (What would you do if you saw a waiter drop some food then put it back on the
plate? If I saw a waiter drop some food then put it back on the plate, I would report him to
the manager.)
 Drill model sentences.
 Highlight form: If + past simple… + would + infinitive…
 Summarise the ‘rule’: We use the second conditional to talk about improbable or
hypothetical situations in the present/future.

Production
Whilst many students will be able to give accurate responses in the controlled practice stage,
original production of the language can often be much more difficult.

This is the step where students go from being passive learners to active users. If the presentation
and practice sections are not well thought-out, it will be evident when students come to produce the
language themselves.

It’s important to remember not to tell the students what to say at this stage, the production needs to
be ‘free’ so that students can become independent language users. There are a variety of activities
that can be used for free production:

 Role-plays
 Debates
 Quizzes/games
 Descriptions
 Writing…

Here you could get the students into small groups and ask them to discuss a particular question e.g.
‘what would you buy if you won the lottery?’ perhaps asking them to give reasons for their choices
or rank the order of their hypothetical purchases.

Or groups could even act out their own version of the video clip shown in the presentation stage.

Any number of activities are possible but just remember to give students the time they need to
effectively produce the language because some may be daunted by the prospect of playing an active
role and, of course, thinking in another language always takes a bit longer!
Lesson plan structure
This is the traditional structure of a lesson plan.  This lesson’s aim is get students to notice how the
use of past continuous interrupted with past simple creates a dramatic story. It could be used with a
pre-intermediate to intermediate level class.  Please pay attention as you will be tested on this later!

Build context  e.g. Ask students to talk about the most frightening experience of their life.

Model sentence e.g. Teacher says ‘I was crossing the road when I was hit by a car!'

Highlight meaning e.g. Teacher shows a past entry in their diary of the date when it happened
(fictional hopefully!).

Highlight spoken form e.g. teacher says the sentence naturally with linking sounds and intonation.

Check understanding.  E.g.  What was I doing just before being hit?”  (Answer, crossing the road) 
This highlights what was in progress just before the interruption.

Highlight written form e.g. Teacher writes on board 'I was crossing the road when I was hit by a
car!'

Summarise rule e.g. Teacher clarifies that this sentence starts with past continuous ( I was
crossing ) interrupted by past simple (when I was hit…)

Restricted practice e.g. Teacher hands out two cut up parts of sentences with past continuous and
past simple actions to match up.  (Teacher monitors students while they do this task to see which
students need further help).

Report back e.g. Teacher asks students with correct answers to feedback to the rest of the class.

Freer practice e.g. In groups, students are given some pictures e.g. a train, a wet floor, a horse, an
aeroplane and a puddle and are instructed to create a dramatic story to use the target language.
(Teacher monitors and takes notes for further work).  Students perform/tell their story to the whole
class.

Consolidation and error correction e.g. Teacher highlights some common errors with this tense on
the board to help clarify the meaning and use of these two tenses (never singling out individual
students of course).

This stage is similar to the Production step from PPP and requires students to use the target
language in a freer practice session. Hopefully, (if you’ve filled in their knowledge sufficiently!)
students will here be able to become accurate users of the target language. As mentioned in unit 1,
any number of activities can be used and this is often the most fun and interesting part of the lesson
where students can actually enjoy using the language.

Student A:

1. Find someone in the magazine your teacher gives you.

2. Describe that person here:  
..........................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................

Student B:

 You are an investigator.

 There was a murder, and student A saw who did it. It was a famous person, but student A
doesn’t know their name. 
 Ask questions to find out as many details as possible. Ask complete questions.

Wearing?..............................................................................................
Looks?..................................................................................................

Search in the magazine and ask “Is this the person you saw?”

Task-based Learning is a method which focuses on learner autonomy and user fluency
through students undertaking ‘real-life’ or problem-solving activities.

Nunan describes it as “teaching and learning a language by using language to accomplish open
ended tasks".

Learners are given a problem or objective to accomplish but are left with some freedom in
approaching this problem or objective.”

Usually this involves an introduction to the theme before setting a quite open task such as ‘plan a
birthday party’ or a ‘murder mystery’ style activity.

Afterwards, learners feedback via a report or reviewing the language used for the task.

Some tips to keep in mind come from the Asian ESL journal:

 The purpose of the task must be clearly stated

 The task must be suitable for the level of the students
 Tasks must be interesting and motivating to the students
 The language that the task will produce must be predicted
 Tasks should have variety and flexibility 

A Task-based approach

As pioneered by  N. Prabhu.  Task -based learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a
task-based lesson the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is
based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what
happens as the students complete it. The lesson follows certain stages.

For TBL activities examples given, make note of the following stages for the activity:

 Assignment: Resources and instruction are given to students.

 Planning: Students use the resources to complete their assignment.
 Reporting: Results are reported orally through formal oral report before the class or
conversational engagement.
 Analysis: The teacher evaluates performance of tasks and highlights areas of interest.
  Practice: By participating in tasks that are relevant and practical a student’s confidence and
proficiency in learning a new language grows.

Pre-task

The teacher announces the material and informs the students what they will have to do.  During the
task stage the teacher may prompt the students to remember applicable language that will help
them for the task. It can also be helpful to play a recording of other students who have completed
this task so that the students know exactly what they need to do. You can offer the students time to
prepare for the task and make notes. 

Task

The teacher can guide the students and praise them as they work through the set task, applying the
language skills they have acquired.

Planning

As a group, create lists of everyday problems and the people, places, things and actions related to
these problems. Prepare a written report based on the lists for each group member to use in
delivering an oral report. 

Report

Students report back to the class with teacher advising on the order of reports to be presented and
possibly also giving some feedback. Teacher may compare other students’ interpretation of the
same task to provide some contrast.

Analysis

Next the teacher highlights relevant parts from the main text of the recording which students should
analyse. The teacher may ask students to identify remarkable features within the text. The teacher
can also demonstrate the language that the students used during the report phase for further study
and analysis.

Practice

Finally, the teacher identifies language areas to focus on based upon the needs of the students and
what transpired from the main task and reporting phase. The students go ahead and undertake
practice activities to increase their confidence whilst making a note of useful language.

TBL Maximizes Learning Opportunities

Teachers who take advantage of a TBL approach provide engaging learning opportunities that are
practical for their students. It is important to stimulate students as much as it is to encourage them.
The use of tasks designed to specifically relate to learning a new language allows students to have
more meaningful classroom experiences.

The positive results of a TBL approach can be attributed to the following factors:

 Freedom in applying language to practical tasks that are relevant to the student.
  Natural language patterns develop within the context of the tasks.
 Exposure to a broader vocabulary results, including phrases and figures of speech.
 Language responds directly to the needs of the students.
 TBL is communication centred which is motivational.

The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in
the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the course book.

It demands  a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time speaking. PPP
lessons seem very teacher-centred by comparison.  

The focus of the lesson is on the task itself.  This takes the focus off “learning and producing
English” which is very helpful in terms of increasing self confidence and is authentically
communicative.

It is enjoyable and motivating.

Look at the following lesson plan based on TBL.

Aims:

Students will collaboratively write instructions

Students will demonstrate understanding of their peers by making a paper wallet and boat.

(You will need two laptops or two Interactive Whiteboards if you are really lucky)

Lesson outline

Teacher’s instructions  “Today you are the teachers.”

Teacher appoints two groups, A and B.  Each group watches a video of how to make something
(approx 2 minute long) in different rooms.

Each group watches the video as many times as they like.  

Task: Students write instructions on how to make the object.   (Set a time limit of say 20 minutes)

Teacher instruction check question: “What are you doing now?”  (Answer, staying in this
classroom, watching the video, writing instructions.)

“How long is the video?”  ( answer: 2mins)

“How many times can you watch it?”  (As many as we like)

Here is the video used:

Show the students a 5 minute video clip of a soap opera which ends in a cliff-hanger (if necessary,
stop the video at a particularly dramatic point)
Get the students to note down the names of characters, setting, level of speech formality and any
key words/expressions
Write ‘what happens next?’ on the board
Put students into groups and get them to prepare their own role-plays or dialogues making it clear
that they can invent new characters and use their imagination!
Students act out their role-play in front of the group.
Get students to vote on the best ending to the clip.

1. Two types of motivation

Generally, there are two types of learner motivation:

Intrinsic motivation

This is the urge to engage in a learning activity for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, or
the feelings of accomplishment it evokes. This type of learner is driven by personal achievement.

Extrinsic motivation

This is derived from external incentives and reward and success, e.g. a qualification, need for a high
proficiency score (e.g. to gain entry to an English-speaking university), or the desire for higher pay
(where language proficiency offers that).

Whether one type of motivated learner is more motivated than another is up for grabs. There is not
enough conclusive research. What is more important for you is to give thought to this when meeting
up with your new class, particularly adults.

Asking them why they have decided to take your course (and noting the reasons) will be of great
benefit to you when you are teaching them or when you happen to mingle with them during some
other school activity.

By being informed, you can empathise with them, foster the necessary attitudes, and directly
encourage their drive, be it personal achievement or reward. You will contribute to their motivation
and will be able to kick start any drop in this if there is a lapse.

Unfortunately, a motivated learner’s motivational levels can drop, as we’ll see in the next section.

2. In general, some key elements of motivation

Here are some key elements of motivation, drawn from our experience:

You need to be motivated to motivate them

You have to be motivated before you can motivate your learners. Don’t expect your students to be
motivated if you are not. There may be times when you feel lacking in vitality or conviction and
find it difficult to overcome a temporary lacklustre feeling.

Tough though this is, you will need to get out of it or your students will quickly become deflated.

Everyone can be motivated in some way or another

There may be the odd student who appears to be demotivated. There may be many reasons for this –
perhaps there are cultural considerations, e.g. he doesn’t like you taking up his learning time when
you get your students involved in fun activities. Or he may be finding the work too hard. Or,
perhaps, he’s not convinced by the whole communicative approach.

Therefore, you need to find out as much as possible about your students from Day 1. What are their
likes and dislikes? How have they previously been taught? Did they communicate with you during
the lesson or were your lessons wholly teacher-centred? 

And if you can’t identify a reason for the drop in drive, make up some reason for meeting with the
student for a few minutes after class (away from his classmates) to try and identify the reason for
the drop in motivation. It’s amazing how a little chat can help.

Once you trace the reason why, you can work out ways to help build up his motivation.

Motivation should be multi-directional

When you take up your teaching role, remember that motivation should be multi-directional. Don’t
just think that your role is only to motivate learners. You can also help to motivate a colleague
when he is feeling down. You will reap rewards from this in the future, when he will help you when
you are a bit lacklustre.

Motivation doesn’t last

Motivation doesn’t last. You need to keep at it all of the time. Motivating others is a strenuous
activity but it’s also rewarding. You cannot give up when you, your students or any of your peers
are feeling down. Dig into your reserves and help as much as you can.

Remember this! We have mentioned this before and we mention it again. The whole person comes
to school, be it students or teachers. They come with all their personal baggage, e.g. worrying about
a sick parent/carer, or upset due to a breakdown in some personal relationship.

So the motivated person yesterday may not be the motivated person today. Help and show empathy
wherever you can.

3. Relationship between motivation and language learning

As research has shown, and as your own personal learning and any teaching experiences probably
confirm, motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning. You will be in a
position to strongly influence your students’ motivation to learn their new language.

To this end, you will need to ensure that your lessons have clear objectives and goals, that your
activities are varied and personalised for students, and that you give feedback and assess on an
ongoing basis.

By doing so, you will be able to foster, stimulate, or even rekindle your learners’ motivation to
learn.

If you are able to accomplish this, learning will happen regardless of whether your students’
motivation is extrinsic or intrinsic.
There’s little doubt about it.

4. Recognising a motivated learner

What do you think are the characteristics of learner motivation? How will you recognise a
motivated learner?

Think of motivated students you have observed in the past. You may have thought: She’s always on
the go, wanting to learn. How does she do it? What traits and qualities did she have?

Or, perhaps, you have always been a motivated learner. What traits and qualities do you have in
relation to learner motivation? Reflect on this.

Research has shown that the motivated learner will typically display most or all of the following
characteristics:

 The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges, and has confidence in her success.
 The learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to maintain and promote her
own positive self-image.
 The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome difficulties and succeed in what she sets out
to do.
 The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding challenges, high proficiency, and top grades.
 The learner is very aware of the goals of learning, or of specific learning activities, and
directs her efforts towards achieving them.
 The learner consistently invests a high level of effort in learning, and is not discouraged by
setbacks or apparent lack of progress.
 The learner is not bothered or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of
understanding or confusion; she can live with these patiently, confident that understanding
will come later.

5. How you can influence and drive learner motivation 

Always focus on practical ways in which you can influence and drive motivation.

Here’s what to do:

Make them aware of their own success

A very simple yet effective way you can motivate your students is to make sure that they are aware
of their own success. This message can be conveyed by a nod, a tick, or a smile. But a sense of
pride and satisfaction may, of course, be enhanced by explicit praise or approval, or by a comment
in the learner’s answer book.

Set clear objectives and goals

Learners should be aware of the objectives of the task – both language-learning and content. Tell
them. For example, a guessing-game may have the language-learning goal of practising questions,
and the content goal of guessing answers.
Remember! Some learners, particularly adult learners, may get annoyed by too many fun activities.
If you tell them the purpose of the game before you start, then they will be more accepting of the
fun element.

Explain purpose and usefulness

It may seem obvious, but learners sometimes need to know why they have to learn something. For
example, students may wonder why they have to learn prepositions.

If you explain to them that preposition errors are the most common form of mistake in student
writing, your learners may be more motivated to pay closer attention to the material. At the very
least, they won’t think that they are wasting their time learning something they think they don’t
need.

Vary classroom topics and tasks

Topics and tasks should be selected carefully to be as interesting as possible. However, there are
very few single types of activities that interest everyone, so you should use a wide range of different
ones over time. Even within a lesson, we can organise a series of tasks that have students doing
different things to keep them engaged.

For example, you can get your students to listen to a dialogue about ‘School Routines’; then have
them complete a worksheet; then get them to compare their answers with a partner; then have
students partner up to create an original dialogue on the same topic. Variety is a major key to
success.

Generate tension and challenge

Game-like activities provide pleasurable tension and challenge through the process of attaining
some 'fun' goal while limited by rules. The introduction of such rules (an arbitrary time limit, for
example) can add excitement to almost any goal-oriented task.

Create a fun atmosphere

Entertainment produces enjoyment, which in turn adds motivation. Entertainment can be teacher-
produced, such as jokes, stories, mimes, songs, or even dramatic presentations. It can be in recorded
format, such as movies, video clips, or television documentaries.

Other activities such as a role play and simulations that use the imagination and put learners in other
situations can be very motivating.

It is important to note, however, that some students are inhibited and may find such activities
intimidating at first. As such, you especially want to try to avoid running students up to the front of
the class to ‘perform’ spontaneously.

Personalise learning

Students are more likely to be interested in tasks that relate to themselves or their interests. For
example, getting students to use their own or each other's opinions, tastes, experiences, and
suggestions as material can be very motivating since they’re relating the learning material to their
own life experience and context.
We have taught boys-only classes in the Far East where the English Premier Soccer League was
king, as was David Beckham at the time. Every single boy in the class was mad on football and
anything to do with football, e.g. magasines, strips, soccer cards with their favourite player’s picture
on the front and key details about him on the back, etc.

There was no need to motivate them when a lesson was built round, for example: What are the 3
questions you would ask David Beckham if you met him?  OR Draw your own football strip and tell
your group why you chose the colours and the shape of the badge.

Create open-ended exercises

A cue which invites a number of possible responses is usually much more stimulating than one with
only one right answer. By aiming for this, the participants' contributions become more
unpredictable. They are also more likely to be interesting, original, or even humorous. For example,
If I won 100,000 euros, I would...

Give students a sense of autonomy

An example of autonomy would be to have students pick from a list of topics to debate. Or you can
let students choose partners with whom they would like to team up with to take part in a specific
activity or game.

Assess students

Whether or not a learner admits it, regular and formal assessment is a very powerful motivator. The
motivating power of tests/quizzes, in particular, appears clear: learners who know they are going to
be tested on specific material next week will normally be more motivated to study it carefully than
if they had simply been told to learn it.

Assessment is a very useful and needed incentive, provided there is not too much stress attached,
and provided it is not overused or given without purpose.